1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
Embodiments of the present invention relate to water treatment and more particularly to a solar powered drinking water treatment apparatus and method of use.
2. Background
Natural disasters, such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, can damage water supplies and leave populations without water that is safe to consume. Humanitarian relief agencies are often tasked with the responsibility of securing a water source for the affected population in a minimum time frame. The available water sources are often bodies of water that have been polluted by the disaster, such as ponds, streams, lakes, rivers and shallow wells. Treatment of these dirty water sources into drinking water quality can be very difficult because the levels of pollutants and contaminates present are typically highly variable and usually are largely unknown to the responder until actually encountered at the site. Existing water treatment systems rely on grid power or use engine-driven generators to provide power for pumps and equipment. Such systems are typically not easily transported, and the logistics of obtaining fuel at remote or disaster-damaged locations is problematic for the relief agency. Known solar-powered water purifying systems include U.S. Pat. No. 7,775,374 B1 to Barker, et al., which describes a self-powered water purification system. That system, however, requires the use of a pump suction hose for drawing water out of a contaminated water source, and cannot provide raw water chemical addition, recirculation and mixing because it does not have a raw water storage tank or chemical addition, or raw water recirculation and mixing apparatus. That system also requires the use of a fine filter for treatment of a contaminated water source, and cannot provide membrane cleaning or back washing because it does not have a treated water storage tank or cleaning chemical addition, or treated water back wash and treated water pumping apparatus, or membrane pulsing device. That system also requires the use of the raw water pump for transferring water through the filter system and out a faucet, and cannot provide treated water recirculation through disinfection or other filters because it does not have a treated water storage tank or chemical addition, or treated water recirculation and pumping apparatus. That system also requires the use of 2 micron fine filter for treatment of a contaminated water source, and cannot provide ultra-filtration because it does not have a ultra-filtration membrane filter. U.S. Pat. No. 6,863,827, to Saraceno, which describes a solar powered portable water purifier. That system, however, requires the use of a pump suction hose for drawing water out of a contaminated water source, and cannot do raw water chemical addition, recirculation and mixing because it does not have a raw water storage tank or chemical addition, or raw water recirculation and mixing apparatus. That system also requires the use of a fine filter for treatment of a contaminated water source, and cannot provide membrane cleaning or back washing because it does not have a treated water storage tank or cleaning chemical addition, or treated water back wash and treated water pumping apparatus, or membrane pulsing device. That system also requires the use of the raw water pump for transferring water through the filter system and out a faucet, and cannot provide treated water recirculation through disinfection or other filters because it does not have a treated water storage tank or chemical addition, or treated water recirculation and pumping apparatus. That system also requires the use of 1 micron and 0.35 micron filters for treatment of a contaminated water source, and cannot provide ultra-filtration because it does not a finer mesh ultra-filtration membrane filter. A self-contained, solar powered, water purification system known as the MOBILE MAX PURE™ is sold by WorldWater & Power at www.worldwater.com. That system, however, requires the use of a pump suction hose for drawing water out of a contaminated water source, and cannot provide raw water chemical addition, recirculation and mixing because it does not have a raw water storage tank or chemical addition, or raw water recirculation and mixing apparatus. That system also requires the use of a fine filter for treatment of a contaminated water source, and cannot provide membrane cleaning or back washing because it does not have a treated water storage tank or cleaning chemical addition, or treated water back wash and treated water pumping apparatus, or membrane pulsing device. That system also requires the use of the raw water pump for transferring water through the filter system and out of a faucet, and cannot provide treated water recirculation through disinfection or other filters because it does not have a treated water storage tank or chemical addition, or treated water recirculation and pumping apparatus. That system also requires the use of 20 micron and 5 micron filters for treatment of a contaminated water source, and cannot provide ultra-filtration because it does not a finer mesh ultra-filtration membrane filter. U.S. Pat. Application Publication No. US 2010/0224558, to Barker, teaches a water filtration system. That system, however, requires the use of a raw water line for drawing water out of a water source, and cannot provide raw water chemical addition, recirculation and mixing because it does not have a raw water storage tank or chemical addition, or raw water recirculation and mixing apparatus. That system also requires the use of a fine filter for treatment of a contaminated water source, and cannot provide membrane cleaning or back washing because it does not have a treated water storage tank or cleaning chemical addition, or treated water back wash and treated water pumping apparatus, or membrane pulsing device. That system also requires the use of the treated water line for transferring water through the filter system and out, and cannot provide treated water recirculation through disinfection or other filters because it does not have a treated water storage tank or chemical addition, or treated water recirculation and pumping apparatus. That system also requires the continuous processing of treated water while back washing a selected filter unit or filter units. Generally, drawbacks of these known units are that they do not utilize raw water storage and optional pre-treatment of the feed water by screening, chemical addition, mixing and particle settling prior to the main filtration step, which places a practical limit on how “dirty” the water to be treated can be, and/or increases the frequency for filter replacement, and/or reduces the volume of water treated, and/or increases maintenance requirements on components. Additionally, further drawbacks of these known units are that they rely on a suction pump to draw raw untreated water into the unit, and rely on the same pump to provide pressure to the filters for treatment, which requires additional electrical power and/or is inefficient. Another drawback of these known units are that they do not utilize membrane filters with small openings sufficient to restrict passage of turbidity, bacteria and other disease causing micro-organisms, which subjects the filtered water to the presence of these organisms and turbidity, and/or limits the effectiveness of the disinfection of filtered water. Further drawbacks of these units are that they do not utilize treated water storage, which limits post-treatment of the filtered water by chemical addition, recirculation through disinfection or alternative media, and/or does not provide clean water for back washing of the filter. Some other drawbacks of these units are that they do not utilize a dedicated treated water pump, which eliminates the self-contained aspect for back washing the filter, and/or eliminates operation in “batch mode”. Additional drawbacks are that they do not utilize optional chemical cleaning of the main filter or optional pressure-surging during backwashing of the main filter, which increases the frequency for filter replacement and/or increases biological fouling of the filter. Still further, they are not easily transportable by helicopter, fork-lift or by sliding on skids into a truck bed, which limits portability and/or response time. Some other drawbacks are that they do not utilize variable angle solar-power panels, which reduces energy production and efficiency.
There is thus a present need for an apparatus, method, and system, which overcome these problems by providing a self-contained, transportable water treatment system which can purify dirty, contaminated water (obtained from a variety of sources, which may be composed of highly variable water quality in terms of turbidity, sediment, solids and other physical and chemical contaminates in fresh water), into safe, potable drinking water for small populations. Most preferably, one which can be powered by sources which are available after a disaster, including but not limited to solar-power and/or human-power. There is further a need for an apparatus, method, and system, which includes a raw water tank which can be manually filled to reduce pumping energy requirements, and which also provides a robust pre-treatment process utilizing: removable and cleanable coarse screening, water treatment chemical addition, mixing, flocculation, floatation and/or sedimentation; a filtration process capable of removing sub-micron particles and organisms; a disinfection process for destruction and/or inactivation of harmful organisms; and a post-treatment process capable of further removal of chemical and biological contaminates. There is further a need for an apparatus, method, and system, which will provide water treatment to comply to requirements of the US EPA Long Term 2 Surface Water Treatment Rule in producing potable water for human consumption. There is also a need for a method, system, and apparatus which can include treated water storage for optional disinfection by chlorine or other chemical additions; treated water recirculation through disinfection and/or various media filters; a cabinet with handles and/or skids incorporated therein for sliding the apparatus horizontally into a truck bed, and which can include lift-eyes and lift-strap spaces for movement by helicopter and foot-pads for movement by fork lift; and/or a solar-power panel that is hinged and may be locked to variable solar angles for optimum energy production.